Legacy Sessions

This presentation will explore the applications of therapeutic songwriting with individuals with mid to late-stage dementia. Therapeutic songwriting with individuals with dementia has been shown to provide an opportunity for clients to strengthen their identity and express emotions not easily articulated through words (Ahessy, 2017). Despite the potential benefits of songwriting with this population, only…

Patient complexity has been a topic of increasing interest as healthcare moves towards a more holistic approach to patient care. While it is helpful to understand patients as members of diagnostically defined groups, patient complexity calls upon providers to take a broader look at the values and needs of their individual patients. Identifying a patient…

This presentation introduces a case study about using Music Sensory Orientation Training (MSOT), one of the neurologic music therapy (NMT) techniques, with a teenager who has been living with epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by neurosurgery (brain surgery). This presentation illustrates the basic health conditions of epilepsy, sharing thoughts and ideas about…

Music therapy in hospice care with imminently dying patients presents opportunities to facilitate meaningful, transformational experiences for patients and their families. When death is imminent, music therapists are challenged to assess needs and make clinical decisions in the unfolding moments of end-of-life. In a recent grounded theory study conducted by the presenters with US participants,…

This presentation will examine clinical songwriting with an adult patient receiving chemotherapy, including a detailed songwriting protocol and education on the use of technology within an infusion center. The patient’s perspective will also be shared in order to give voice to his narrative and continue his legacy. Presentation Description: Clinical songwriting is proven to be…

The grief of client loss is not often publicly discussed within music therapy. There are limited articles or publications focused on this topic, even though it is an aspect of professional practice that many, if not all, of us will experience. I believe there is value in naming this shared experience and examining how we…

MIDI controllers have been utilized for decades to record and perform, but are not commonplace in therapeutic spaces. Through live demonstration, experiential learning, and case examples, this presentation introduces participants to the use of MIDI controllers and Virtual Studio Instruments within therapy. The presentation presents music therapists with little or beginning knowledge about MIDI with…

Discover how partnerships between a music therapist, a university orchestra, and a local professional orchestra ignited new potentials for student learning, community building and arts enrichment for people of all ages and needs in the southeast region of the state. A music therapist, the Director of Education and Community Engagement of a local professional orchestra,…

Referral is the first step in the music therapy process. Learn how the music therapy referral process and form was revamped to better assist members of the interdisciplinary team at Southern Wisconsin Center understand individuals’ areas of clinical need when referring them to music therapy services. Presentation Description: This presentation will delve into why a…

The focus of singing supervision is to address the complexities involved in helping music therapists in their development as depth-oriented clinicians. Issues like resistance, transference and countertransference are addressed through vocal psychotherapy and in particular free associative singing. In its simplest form “free associative singing” involves the client singing a word or phrase and the…

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in unprecedented challenges for caregivers worldwide; Providing innovative support resources has never been more important. In this presentation, the unique strengths and needs of caregivers (lay people who may or may not be family members who undertake vital care for loved ones) will be explored. The relevance of the four tenets…

As music therapists, regardless of our primary instrument, we use our voices every day.

This presentation will explore ways trauma informed care can be infused into music therapy treatment in addiction settings.

Learn the impact of developmentally appropriate music and movement on infant’s behavior and the parent-infant relationship.

This presentation introduces a developmental music therapy program using the epigenetic framework, where a child’s development is the result of ongoing, bidirectional exchanges between heredity and all levels of their environment.

This dialogue is intended to investigate the phenomena of medical migration as it intersects with music therapy through case examples and literature review.

Individuals presenting for inpatient care are in extreme distress, often suicidal, psychotic, and non-compliant with treatment.

MT education trains in ‘methodologies’ and materials for clinical work. Is that comprehensive enough?

This presentation will provide definitions of grief, mourning and bereavement as well as highlight grief and mourning stages, phases and theories.

This presentation will describe and discuss inter-cultural doctoral research undertaken at Children’s Rehabilitation Centre Minsk.

Scholarship of learning and teaching on music therapy training courses offers opportunities for innovative pedagogical methods to be explored that may impact on the research and practice of staff and students.

Music therapy in Iceland is a very small field.

What do you think of when you hear the term ‘professional advocacy fatigue’?

This presentation invites music therapists to consider our discipline, ourselves, and our clients in the context of climate change.

Gerotranscendence is a theory of aging which suggests that spiritual growth and development plays a vital developmental role in the elder years.

From social media to social justice, young professionals navigate their identities and roles intricately.

This presentation explains how being a performer can both help and hinder a music therapy practice and explains how the practitioner can merge two worlds into a successful practice.

Julie Sutton PhD is dual trained in music therapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy and registered with the UK HCPC and the British Psychoanalytic Council.

Joanne Loewy DA, LCAT, MT-BC is a clinician, researcher and international speaker.